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[leezer3]

Hiya,
Not sure precisely where the problem lies with this, other than that its something MCs doing
I have a 5.5g Ipod Video, running firmware 1.2.1 (Don't want to upgrade if at all possible- Have got a very majorly hacked set of backgrounds and some other stuff). This Ipod has only been touched with MC, nothing else has every tried to sync with it. A few builds back, possible the one before 12.0.450, I recieved a message that some other program was using writing to an older Ipod DB format than MC, but I left it as I wasn't trying to sync anything new at the time- I've now formatted the Ipod and this message has vanished.
These are the main problems currently-
1. Cover art has completely vanished.
2. Track numbers are broken on several file sets, but not all.
3. Autoresume has stopped working.

Cheers

-Leezer-

[SwellGuy]

We write the latest iPod database format to the device. Because of this, it is often necessary that you have the latest firmware installed on the device to make sure that the it can read the database correctly. Unfortunately, we have to suggest that you update the firmware to 1.2.3.

You could get the database incompatibility message if you are using your iPod with different versions of Media Center.

[leezer3]

Argh 
The Ipod has never been touched with anything but MC 12, which is what confused me to an extent (I'd have expected possible problems if I was using Itunes & MC together, but not with either program singly). I'd suggest some sort of message pointing out that the latest firmware may be required could be a good idea?

I don't suppose that there is any chance of detection of firmware versions and the appropriate database versions  (It seems to be the DB version bump from 12.0.451 thats causing these issues, so I'd think that it would be a relatively simple tweak)

Cheers

-Leezer-

[dcwebman]

I came across this same problem and have avoided updating firmware in the past too (if it ain't broke, don't fix it). I wasn't sure who was giving me the message and what I should do. I ignored it and it did sync okay. I don't recall seeing anything in the release notes saying that this was going to happen.

[SwellGuy]

We are posting the message because either the database we are writing is of an older format than the one currently on the device or the one we are writing is newer than the one currently on the device.

Older iPod Database Format
If we are writing an older format it is an indicatation that the iPod is being used with another program that could balk at the database we write. This has caused issues for users that use their iPod with multiple applications. The course of action in this case is 1) to ignore the warning and deal with interoperability problems as they occur or 2) upgrade to the latest version of MC that writes a newer format database (for obvious reasons we do lag behind Apple by about a week when new database formats emerge).

Newer iPod Database Format
If we are writing a newer format it could cause problems with the firmware on the iPod. In this case you might experience problems on the iPod because the firmware might not read the new database format correctly. You can receive this message even if MC is the only application accessing your iPod. This can happen if you transfer files to the iPod with MC version 12.x.1 and then download a newer version of MC (12.x.2) and connect you iPod. The course of action in this case is to 1) ignore it and deal with problems as they occur or 2) make sure you are running the latest firmware (we hope to make this easier to do in the near future).

MC Wants to Resync Everything
If, after updating to a newer version of Media Center (newer than the version that was last used to transfer files to your iPod), it wants to resync everyting on your iPod it is an indication that the database has changed and the files on you iPod can't be reconciled with the files on the transfer queue. In this case, resync. If after resyncing, MC wants to resync files again, let us know about it.

Best Practices
When using an Ipod with Media Center, the if it ain't broke, don't fix it analogy doesn't quite cut the mustard because there are outside influences (Apple) that we can't control that regularly change the situation. So the best practice for using your iPod with MC is to keep everything as up to date as possible. Run the latest version of Media Center and the latest firmware.

[leezer3]

Yep, understand that, athough TBQH I don't agree with it. In my opinion, all it should take is for MC to detect the current DB version and write the same version back again (I appreciate that this is much harder than it sounds!)

Having said that though, how about adding a firmware update message to the dialog in question, at the least it should point less knowledgable users in the right direction?

Cheers

-Leezer-

[SwellGuy]

We don't want to point users to our competitors but we will have another approach soon.

[dcwebman]

So the best practice for using your iPod with MC is to keep everything as up to date as possible. Run the latest version of Media Center and the latest firmware.

Fair enough. I don't follow anything else iPod related so I don't know when I NEED to update to the latest firmware. At least something in the release notes about the database changing would clue me in. Guess I'll see what the other approach coming soon is.

[Eccles]

We don't want to point users to our competitors but we will have another approach soon.

I do hope that means that we'll soon be able to update our iPods' firmware from within MC, rather than having to fire up iTunes.  I'd really like to be able to do everything iPodish from MC, and ditch iTunes completely.

[JimH]

I do hope that means that we'll soon be able to update our iPods' firmware from within MC,

That's possible with recent builds.  Open MC's Devices and right click on the iPod.

[Eccles]

Most excellent, I'll have to give it a try tonight.